EXPANDING A BRAND WITHOUT OVERSTEPPING BOUNDARIES

At a base level. no human being is ever fulfilled. Once you achieve merit, you are bound to try for a second time. So it is with a brand. After achieving success in one product category, a brand will generally try to repeat the same success in another product category. This is what is known as brand extension. An action, which nowadays is usually undertaken by various brands, particularly big brands which have a good name and reputation in consumer's eyes.

Sometimes brand extension is undertaken only because of weighing up commercial values. A brand makes a new product to cash in on the profit, but they do not pay attention to other aspects, which are actually much more important to weigh up than commercialism.

Often a brand will undertake a brand extension, without a clear direction. Coming back to commercial consideration, they only see that there is a product category which is promising, and they have not tried before. However, if a decision is made to undertake brand extension, does it feel appropriate? Not necessarily.

Brand extension should be undertaken with an appropriate direction. Because of this, a brand should not extend sporadically. Consistency is needed to achieve harmonious brand extension.

Imagine if a brand which was previously known by consumers as a snack—food brand suddenly undertook brand extension and created a a lip balm product. Seems strange and illogical. doesn't it? Funnily, this did really happen. Consistency of brand essence between existing products and those to be released is the main factor which must be balanced by a parent brand before extending the brand. They must know beforehand what values or essence are conceived in the brand- As in the idiom "an apple doesn't fall far from the tree", brand essence from the parent brand must still be maintained in each product released so that brand extention is undertaken in a corridor, and does not stray beyond the limits.

Let's take the brand Nike as an example. The essence conveyed by this brand is victory. We know that Nike always produces sports wear, which clearly shows that value of winning. When Nike began to enter the category of electronic products by releasing Nike+, a packet of digital watch and electronic chip which can be put on Nike shoes, was this outside their sphere of prevalence? Nike stayed faithful to their brand essence. Nike+ was designed for use monitoring their speed in sports and running. and can practice 'victory' in running.

In the lndonesian market, we know Sosro. This brand, with the slogan "ahlinya teh” (the tea experts) has a very strong essence as a brand which is very qualified in the tea industry. The product Teh Botol 50er has won the hearts of Indonesian consumers of all ages. When Sosro tried to enter the teenage consumer market, they did not put out a soft drink like Coca-Cola or Fanta, but kept a firm hold on their brand essence as the tea experts, and produced a fruit-flavoured, ready to drink tea product especially for teens, with the brand Fruitea. As a result, 50er with the brand Fruitea Succeded in enjoying the teenage consumer market,

and stayed faithful to their essence as the tea experts.

Reflecting on these two cases above, we can summarize that brand extension cannot be undertaken immediately just because of market opportunity. The main consideration is consistency of values or essence of the parent brand, which must be the same as the sub-brand in whatever product category, so that harmony is created in the brand ’family'.